4.2.4

Human & Social Factors Affecting Development

Test yourself

Political and Social Causes of Global Inequalities

The following economic and political factors are likely to cause global inequalities:

Illustrative background for Poor international relationsIllustrative background for Poor international relations ?? "content

Poor international relations

  • Poor international relations means that a country may have to pay a higher interest rate on its debt or that it may not be able to borrow at all.
  • The USA offered lots of countries free money for development under the Marshall Plan after World War 2. However, this was informally tied to being a democratic, capitalist society.
  • Countries like the Ivory Coast have received debt relief in the last few decades, whereas other countries have growing debts.
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Poor systems of governance

  • Development under authoritarian governments or dictatorships can be good (China since 1980) or bad (Venezuela since 2017 or Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe).
  • Many Eastern European and Baltic countries had slower economic growth under the communist USSR. While these socialist systems aimed for equality, state control sometimes caused inefficiencies.
    • Cold War tensions and limited trade with the West also affected their economies.
  • Corrupt government or institutions can also slow development.
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Education and brain drain

  • Sometimes, there is a brain drain from developing countries to developed countries. This is when the best-educated people (usually with university degrees) try to live and work in a developed country.
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Climate and health institutions

  • Diseases like cholera and malaria can be more likely to happen in some climates. However, a government or social culture can make their spread more likely (e.g. bad healthcare system).
  • If people are dying from malaria and cholera, this affects development and could lead to even more brain drain.
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Tourism

  • Kenya is in East Africa. In 2000, its GNI per capita was $800. In 2019, it was $1,200. Kenya used tourism to help grow it to develop.
  • Tourism can help a country grow.
  • Tourism is now 15% of Kenya's exports and has created 1.1 million jobs in Kenya.
  • Having beaches and wildlife that tourists want to visit can affect development.

Jump to other topics

1Geography Skills

2Geology of the UK

3Geography of the World

4Development

5Weather & Climate

6The World of Work

7Natural Resources

8Rivers

9Coasts

10Glaciers

11Tectonics

12Climate Change

13Global Population & Inequality

14Urbanisation

15Ecosystems

16Life in an Emerging Country

17Analysis of Africa

18Analysis of India

19Analysis of the Middle East

20Analysis of Bangladesh

21Analysis of Russia

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